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How Humble Beginnings Can Shape Ethic and Drive

November 20, 2018 | Phương Uyên Trần

As of 2018, THP is Vietnam’s largest family-owned manufacturer in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods category (FMCG), employing more than five thousand staff members nationwide. We have a 15 to 20 percent domestic market share, ranking alongside multinationals such as Coca-Cola and Japan’s Suntory. In terms of the healthy beverages sub-sector, THP leads the pack with a 50 percent market share.

Given where THP stands today, it is hard to imagine how difficult it must have been for my parents, Trần Quí Thanh and Phạm Thị Nụ, in the beginning. This is particularly the case for Vietnam’s younger generation. They have grown up in a much richer and forward-looking country, which has embraced the market economy and is literally buzzing thanks to their dynamic attitude.

It wasn’t always that way, though. I grew up during a time of scarcity, and because of that, I understand just how much hard work it takes to achieve success in life. I take nothing for granted, just like my parents.

In the late 1970s when my father and mother were first starting to make their way in the world, aspiring businessmen and women faced extreme challenges, but also unique opportunities. These fed each other and drove both my parents to strive ever harder to create a successful business for themselves and their family.

They worked around the clock then. We all still do now. The company is an inseparable part of our family’s DNA, and the second generation remains as committed to it today as the first generation was in the 1990s when my parents started building it up.

It’s this humble beginning, and the work it took to be successful, that has shaped, influenced, and motivated my sister and me to support and carry on the legacy our parents created in THP. Our parents expected us to work as hard as anyone else. Through the years I’ve met thousands of THP workers and learned something of value from many of them. Nothing beats learning on the job, and I owe a lot of my ideas to my parent’s expectation that I have firsthand experience working on the factory floor. Learn more about how THP grew to the enterprise it is today by getting your own copy of Competing with Giantshere.